Josh Giddey takes on former NBL team in preseason game three

The Oklahoma City Thunder get set for their third preseason game, on the second night of a back-to-back, this time the OKC Thunder welcome in Josh Giddey’s former NBL team, the Adelaide 36ers in this exhibition matchup.

The OKC Thunder will be shorthanded in this matchup with the obvious being Chet Holmgren (foot) being out for the year. Even past that, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is still out with an MCL injury, Mike Muscala will miss the entire preseason with an ankle sprain, Lu Dort is still in concussion protocol, Ousmane Dieng suffered a knee contusion yesterday and is out for this contest, and lastly, Jalen Williams has strep throat which has sidelined him for this contest.

Oklahoma City Thunder is shorthanded as Josh Giddey takes on his former NBL team in preseason game three

The 36ers are not to be taken lightly after they topped the Suns on Sunday, and were in attendance for yesterday’s tilt with the Dallas Mavericks in the BOK Center. The NBL stars were the talk of the NBA for 24 hours after beating the Suns and look to go 2-0 on this NBA exhibition swing.

Mark Daigneault is already making tweaks to the starting lineups, the third different five-man group in as many games, Aleksej Pokusevski will come off the bench today after starting the first two contests.  Daigneault mentioned that starters are not as important as the rotation.

The Thunder bench boss also informed us Tre Mann, Josh Giddey, and the rest of the active players will extend their minutes into the second half tonight.

Mann looks to rebound from an off-shooting night, while Josh Giddey will look to dazzle the Bricktown crowd for the first time since February against his former NBL team.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will be back at it on Sunday afternoon against Ra’anana Maccabi for their final preseason game in the state of Oklahoma before two more road trips on the preseason going to Detriot, then San Antonio.